I recently returned from a medical "missionary" trip to Cuenca, Ecuador. This is something I have always wanted to and I was fortunate to get invited as I found out.
We replaced 31 hips and did a few other operations in five days. Hip dysplasia is quite common in Ecuador because of the way babies are traditionally bundled and maybe for genetic, altitude or size issues. The adults I saw before their surgery were incredibly disabled, and as there is no social safety net as in Canada they were also quite poor.
This type of medical tourism can be quite fun. You work hard but you play hard too. We started every day with a nice breakfast in our hotel, followed by a vigourous 20 minute walk to our hospital. We worked hard for 10-12 hours but it didn't seem like work because of the teamwork and camraderie. We then all sat down to a nice meal at the hotel, washed down by a bottle of Chilean wine which costs about half what it costs in Canada.
Your airfare is tax deductable and your living expenses are covered by charitable donations. If you are organized you can arrange side trips to the Galapagos,or Machu Pichu.
Leather goods, alpaca sweaters and pottery are incredibly cheap and of good quality so everybody shopped like crazy before during and after the mission. (We of course had to fill out the bags of medical equipment we emptied.) We had a bus tour the day before the mission with mandatory shopping stops and had a bus tour out into the country after the mission.
I had some reservations about this kind of work which I will discuss below.
1. This type of mission focuses on treating a small number of patients and doesn't address the root causes of the problem.
While it is true that we only treated a small number of patients, these are patients who are horribly disabled. We saw about 90 patients the day before the mission started and we did 31 in a week. Some of these 90 were unsuitable for the treatment, the rest will wait for next year. In addition the paediatric team tried to educate health care professionals and patient on proper infant bundling to prevent hip dysplasia and on early recognition.em>
2. The money spent on a mission of this size would be better spent digging wells, building health clinics etc.
It is hard to argue with this point and in fact doctors working the 3rd world full time have made this point. We did actually have a side project involving piping clean water into a smally village. Unfortunately the nature of the 3rd (and to an extent the 1st) world is that had we stayed home and simply donated the money, how much of it would have gone to wells and health clinics and how much into somebody's pockets?
3. We ascend on a city, do a complicated procedure and then fly out with no follow-up.This was again a problem I wrangled with. We did stay for two days after the surgery and we worked with local doctors for follow-up. Historically there have been low complication rates. I do wonder about what happens when somebodies new hip dislocates or gets infected after we leave. Aside from the possible lack of expertise in treating it, they may not be able to afford the treatment. 1.
All in all though a very positive experience and one I would like to do again next year.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Thursday, January 4, 2007
The Globe and Mail
Several years ago when the Globe offered me home delivery, I signed up eagerly. I take the paper to work with me to read and my wife reads the local paper.
In order to not let the local lowlifes know I was away over Christmas, I carefully made a vacation stop on-line. When I came home on December 29 there where 4 papers on the doorstep. I didn't really mind. I was a paper boy for one day and realise how difficult it is to keep up with who wants and doesn't want their paper at 0500 in the am. The paper also came on December 30 as I had requested.
On January 1 however there was no paper. I just thought maybe the Globe didn't publish New Year's Day. That was until I saw the Globe in Starbucks. It also didn't come the 2nd, 3rd or today. I did submit a delivery problem on line on the 1st but I figured I must have asked them to stop delivery the wrong week. So I thought I better phone the toll-free number today.
After the computer generated voice couldn't understand my mumbles, I was referred to a real person. I explained my problem and the individual told me, " oh yeah, your paperboy quit and we haven't found anybody yet but don't worry we are crediting your account". I asked them just when they were planning on telling me, I wouldn't be getting home delivery anymore and he said they weren't but don't worry they were crediting my account. He also said someone from the local office would contact me.
Just had to get it off my chest.
In order to not let the local lowlifes know I was away over Christmas, I carefully made a vacation stop on-line. When I came home on December 29 there where 4 papers on the doorstep. I didn't really mind. I was a paper boy for one day and realise how difficult it is to keep up with who wants and doesn't want their paper at 0500 in the am. The paper also came on December 30 as I had requested.
On January 1 however there was no paper. I just thought maybe the Globe didn't publish New Year's Day. That was until I saw the Globe in Starbucks. It also didn't come the 2nd, 3rd or today. I did submit a delivery problem on line on the 1st but I figured I must have asked them to stop delivery the wrong week. So I thought I better phone the toll-free number today.
After the computer generated voice couldn't understand my mumbles, I was referred to a real person. I explained my problem and the individual told me, " oh yeah, your paperboy quit and we haven't found anybody yet but don't worry we are crediting your account". I asked them just when they were planning on telling me, I wouldn't be getting home delivery anymore and he said they weren't but don't worry they were crediting my account. He also said someone from the local office would contact me.
Just had to get it off my chest.
Underage drinking
I had my oldest son late in the year for tax purposes. He turned 17 in December. This means many of his friends will turn 18 next year which is legal drinking age. This is freaking my wife out.
Of course I had my first beers at 16 and my wife boasts of getting into a disco at age 15. She also for reasons she won't discuss cannot abide the smell or taste of rye. I suspect most adults actually have fond memories of sneaking alcohol before they were legal. In fact it was a little less interesting after you were of age.
So what do teenagers do when they drink? For the most part they get drunk occasionally throw up and wake up with a bad hangover. Occasionally they have sex. With the possible exception of sex this is not necessarily a bad thing; no-one is seriously hurt by this behaviour. Sex is only really bad if you or your partner get pregnant, share a sexually transmitted disease or if your culture demands an intact hymen on wedding night.
Where teenagers get into trouble when they drink is when they drive. That is when they kill or injure themselves or others. We read about these tragedies and blame alcohol instead of the 2 tons of steel travelling at 140 km per hour.
Wait a second....
Teenagers also kill or injure themselves and others when they aren't drinking. They probably do it with greater frequency. The teenager who gets killed driving home from school just doesn't generate the same headlines as the teenager who buys it at 2 am. Face it, teenagers are just plain bad drivers and probably that doesn't change until about 25. The insurance industry clued into this years ago.
So my solution:
Get rid of the drinking age or at least lower it to 16 (the legal age in the Netherlands and also Cuba). I know sneaking into a bar underage is a rite of passage but it is one we can do without. Think of all the energy that goes into enforcing that law. Take that energy and transfer it into teaching responsible drinking and harm reduction.
At the same time....
Raise the legal age for driving to something sensible like 18 or 21. We all know we were lousy drivers before those ages. Plus that way most kids will already have had the experience of being drunk before they learn to drive. That just might make them think twice before getting into a car drunk.
Of course I had my first beers at 16 and my wife boasts of getting into a disco at age 15. She also for reasons she won't discuss cannot abide the smell or taste of rye. I suspect most adults actually have fond memories of sneaking alcohol before they were legal. In fact it was a little less interesting after you were of age.
So what do teenagers do when they drink? For the most part they get drunk occasionally throw up and wake up with a bad hangover. Occasionally they have sex. With the possible exception of sex this is not necessarily a bad thing; no-one is seriously hurt by this behaviour. Sex is only really bad if you or your partner get pregnant, share a sexually transmitted disease or if your culture demands an intact hymen on wedding night.
Where teenagers get into trouble when they drink is when they drive. That is when they kill or injure themselves or others. We read about these tragedies and blame alcohol instead of the 2 tons of steel travelling at 140 km per hour.
Wait a second....
Teenagers also kill or injure themselves and others when they aren't drinking. They probably do it with greater frequency. The teenager who gets killed driving home from school just doesn't generate the same headlines as the teenager who buys it at 2 am. Face it, teenagers are just plain bad drivers and probably that doesn't change until about 25. The insurance industry clued into this years ago.
So my solution:
Get rid of the drinking age or at least lower it to 16 (the legal age in the Netherlands and also Cuba). I know sneaking into a bar underage is a rite of passage but it is one we can do without. Think of all the energy that goes into enforcing that law. Take that energy and transfer it into teaching responsible drinking and harm reduction.
At the same time....
Raise the legal age for driving to something sensible like 18 or 21. We all know we were lousy drivers before those ages. Plus that way most kids will already have had the experience of being drunk before they learn to drive. That just might make them think twice before getting into a car drunk.
Monday, January 1, 2007
Now that I've got a blog, what the hell do I do with it.
So I created my blog 2 days ago. I have been checking it religiously to see if anyone has left a comment. So far no.
Anyway I am sitting around watching college football on New Year's Day. Doesn't matter which teams, I just like to watch college football on NYD. Actually its a pretty good game, WVU vs. Georgia Tech and its 38-35 in the third quarter.
I am all alone in the house. My family is still down at my dacha in Canmore. I had to come back to work. I was supposed to be on call last night from 1700 on. However when I phoned in around 1600, there was no work to be done so I stayed at home waiting to be called in but morning came around and no-one had called. That is the first time this has ever happened to me. Anyway I had good intentions of reading my Christmas Book, "Searching for Bobby Orr" but I have to confess I watched Seinfeld re-runs. A couple of them I don't actually remember watching so I guess it was a productive evening. I also watched a bit of the 60 minutes show on Ed Bradley. Turns out he was a good friend of Jimmy Buffett, who had lost most of his hair and looks like a 60ish businessman.
2007 is the year I turn 50. I must say I am looking forward to the gravitas that will surely come with attaining that age. For the last year or so I have been referring to myself as almost 50. I do remember how old my father seemed when he turned 50 but I don't feel that old at all. I still ski (way better than I did at 25, if only because I didn't learn until I was 26) and I starting riding my bike 45 minutes each way to work in the summer. Hair loss is apparently not in my genes and I have only a touch of gray. I have in the last year or so developed gout and I depend on my All-Bran buds.
My wife told me that in milestone years every day in like your birthday so I am hoping that is the case.
Anyway I am sitting around watching college football on New Year's Day. Doesn't matter which teams, I just like to watch college football on NYD. Actually its a pretty good game, WVU vs. Georgia Tech and its 38-35 in the third quarter.
I am all alone in the house. My family is still down at my dacha in Canmore. I had to come back to work. I was supposed to be on call last night from 1700 on. However when I phoned in around 1600, there was no work to be done so I stayed at home waiting to be called in but morning came around and no-one had called. That is the first time this has ever happened to me. Anyway I had good intentions of reading my Christmas Book, "Searching for Bobby Orr" but I have to confess I watched Seinfeld re-runs. A couple of them I don't actually remember watching so I guess it was a productive evening. I also watched a bit of the 60 minutes show on Ed Bradley. Turns out he was a good friend of Jimmy Buffett, who had lost most of his hair and looks like a 60ish businessman.
2007 is the year I turn 50. I must say I am looking forward to the gravitas that will surely come with attaining that age. For the last year or so I have been referring to myself as almost 50. I do remember how old my father seemed when he turned 50 but I don't feel that old at all. I still ski (way better than I did at 25, if only because I didn't learn until I was 26) and I starting riding my bike 45 minutes each way to work in the summer. Hair loss is apparently not in my genes and I have only a touch of gray. I have in the last year or so developed gout and I depend on my All-Bran buds.
My wife told me that in milestone years every day in like your birthday so I am hoping that is the case.
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